Bottle-sealing device.



PATENTED FEB. 4, 1908.

A. HOSIETTLER. BOTTLE SEALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 22,1907,

- I w'tmmoeo and especially with bottlers of beer, that bottics designed to receive such cap seals ire- Devices,

. seals.

- may ALEXANDER HOSTETTLER, OF COLUMBUS, OlIIO.

B OTTLE-SEAL Specification of Letters Patent.

me DEVICE.

Patented Feb. 4, 1908.

Application filed July 22.1907. Serial No. 384,990-

To all whom it may concern: I Be it known that I, ALEXANDER IIos'rE'r'r- LER, a citizen of the United States, residing I at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and I State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement 1n Bottle-Sealing of which the following is a speci'lication.

As at present in extensive use the seals or stoppers for bottles, especially beer bottles, I comprise a metallic cup-shaped cap containing in its bottom a flat disk of cork, said cap in practice being pressed down and pinched inward around its edges to engage an an nular projection around the neck of thebottle near its rim. Such devices are commonly known as crown seals and they are used in connection with What are known as crown bottles; that'is, bottles having a shoulder on the outer'side of the neck near its top. It is a matter of general experience, I qucntly have their rims or necks more or less I chipped, due to rough handling and to the detective use of devices for removing the This is the occasion of serious loss, because with bottles having chipped or other; I wise defective necks it is impractimiblc to I use the seal as now constructed. A chipping I l I or defect in the neck of the bottle, which, of course, cooperates with the cork of the sealing device, renders it ordinarily" impracticable, with the seal as at present constructed, to secure a tight, perfect closure, hence de fective bottles are culled out as useless. In bottling beer it is customary to test every bottle after it is sealed to ascertain its tightness, and the present practice develops that even with apparently pcifect'bottles a considerable proportion arefound defective, due not only to the'existence of unobserved defects in the bottles but also to insulliciency of or defects in the sealing device itself.

The object of the present invention is to'I provide an improved device of the kind generally referred to by which a'perfeet sealing be insured and by which most oi the defects in the bottle now regarded as fatal may be ignored.

The invention consists in the construction hereinafter described and then particularly ointefl out in the claims, the invention not being confined in its embodiment to the precise forms herein shown and described.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating l the preferred em bodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a plan view looking at the under side or interior of the seal: Fig. 2 is a view showing the metallic cap portion in diametrical section and the scaling portion in full; Fig. 3 is a sectional view showing the scaling device as applied to the neck of a bottle.

In the views the character 4 designates a metallic cap having a crimped edge or flange 4 as is usual in what are now commonly known as crown seals. Within. this is placed a cork sealing or stoppering member comprised of a single integral piece cut to foim a cylindrical disk or circular base portion 5 with a contrally-projecting cylindrical ortion 6 of smaller diameter than that of the aseportion The cork member thusformed rovides an annular horizontal scaling surface 5 that engages the rim oi, the neck of the bottle, and a vertical surface of forming a'plugdike member that enters the mouth of the bottle and engages the inner wall thereof, as seen in Fig. 3. There are thus primarily provided by the cork two scaling sur faces, one around the top of the rim and one around the interior of the mouth of the bottle, but because of the cylindrical form of the two portions thcreof,the device can be pressed into close engagement with the bottle all; the way from the interior of the neck to a line at the outer side thereof below the top of the mouth of the bottle and even though the junction between the surfaces 5 and U be angular. But said junction can be .made primarily rounding if desired. In practice the central projecting portion 6 will preferably be made of no greater thickness than that of the disk or base portion, and for the standard beer bottle the said parts will each be about one-eighth of an inch in'lhickncss or the cork, portion have a total thickness of one-fourth inch. The diameter of the base 5 is such as to fit and be held by friction in the metallic cap,'and the diameter of the projection 6 ,is such that it will enter and suitably engage the inner side of the mouth of the bottle. In' the inst nce shown the flange or edge of the metallic. cap extends below the edge of the clisk portion and in practice is pressed or clenched iinward under the outwardly-projecting shoulder 7 near'the rim of the bottle as usual. I

M invention is not confined in its use to the "orm of ea or device shown for holding the compressiilc sealing member, as other formsof'deviees for performing this function can be employed. Nor do I limit myself to the use of cork, because any other compressiblematerial or combination of .materials -form1ng material adapted to be molded or shaped into substantially the form shown can be employed. 1. prefer the use of cork, however, because I have discovered that in my particular form of sealing device it is, among other advantages, more freely compressible than paper, and when pressed intoposition it tends more to retain its compressed position than rubber.

The embodiment of my invention herein particularly described can be applied to and removed from bottles by the same means as are now used for those. purposes in connection with the ordinary so-called crown seals now on the market.

What I claim and desire to secure by'Letters Patent is: I

1. A bottle sealing device comprising, in combination, a compressible member consisting of a single integral solid piece of cork formed as-a flat cylindrical ortion 5 With a cylindrical portion 6 of smal er diameter pr0- jecting from one face thereof, the axes of said cylindrical portions coinciding in the same straight line, and a metallic cap including integrally therewith a circumferential pend ent, flexible flange, said cap containing said compressible member, and said flange adapted to be pressed inward at its lower edge to engage a shoulder onv the outer side of the neck of the bottle at its top, and said'cork being of a thickness approximately equal the depth of the cap.

2. A bottle sealing device comprising, in combination, a compressible member con sisting of a single integral solid piece of com pressible material formed as a fiat cylin drical portion 5 With a cylindrical portion 6 of smaller diameter projecting centrally from one face thereof, the axes of said cylindrical portions coinciding in the same straight line,

- and a metallic cap including integrally therewith a circumferential pendent flexible flange said cap containing said compressible inem- 

